Ok, here's the basic rundown of what happened to me on the way to work.

I've had my 2006 Mustang GT for about 3 weeks. Installed a K&N cold air intake last Monday. Been running great with no problems. Until this morning.

Started up fine. Drove about 4 miles to the first stop sign on the way to work. As I came to a stop and depressed the clutch, the RPMs dropped really low and the engine almost stalled. Thinking that was very odd, I made a mental note of it and took off from the stop sign. Everything seemed normal. As I got closer to work, the engine seemed to bog down whenever I got on the throttle. I made it almost all the way to work (there was no suitable place to pull over until I made it in to town) and by then the engine wouldn't even idle without stalling. Pulled into a parking lot and popped the hood.

Thinking it had something to do with the intake, that was the first thing I looked at. It was hard to miss, because it had come completely off of the intake manifold. Before you scold me for not checking the clamps, let me tell you that I have been checking them daily since I installed the intake last Monday! They were fine yesterday! I'm thinking maybe it had something to do with the heat (it was 105 degrees yesterday and 104 the day before) but that's beside the point. Needless to say, the clamps are as tight as reasonably possible now and everything is very secure.

Now, to finally get to the question!

Could this incident have damaged the engine? When I reconnected the intake, I started the car back up and let it idle for a good while. When I drove off, the car hesitated ever so slightly and seemed to be a little short on power, but now everything seems to be running fine. A friend of mine said I should disconnect the battery to reset the computer. Is that necessary?

Any input/suggestions/criticisms are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

It's not unheard of to have the intake come loose from the TB. But once it's attached properly and secured (sometimes overtightening is as bad as undertightening) it should stay put.

It wouldn't hurt to reset the PCM by lifting a battery lead for 20-30 minutes. This would reset the adaptive learning. Be aware, however, that after doing so, the car may run a little rough and/or you'll see some more idle issues until it begins to re-learn which may take a good 10-20 miles or more. There are quite a few here that do the reset every so often because the adaptive learning can result in a perceived loss of performance.

 

+1. It bogged a bit because the computer was "being safe" lets just say that. You can reset if you wish but if it's functioning fine then you don't have to. Do you have a tune or just the intake?

 

Just the intake at the moment. I am still reading up on which tuner to buy. Any suggestions? I am looking more for the best quality for the money as opposed to the most "bang for the buck" so to speak.

I was told (rightly or wrongly?) that the K&N would be fine to install and use until I purchase a tuner. The only downside being I wouldn't be getting the most out of it until it was tuned.

 

No damage. The MAF sensor simply didn't read any air flow...

 

true, you'll get more out of an intake that requires a tune however.

 

It's more about the quality of the tune (as in WHO writes it) than about the tuner. The handheld tuner is simply used to download the custom tune, store the stock tune and change a few minor, user-adjustable parameters.